'Womenomics' is a challenge for Japan

IT is not clear if Tokyo assemblyman Akihiro Suzuki is a fan of Beyonce's, but he has had to apologise for heckling a female colleague at a plenary session of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly last week where he essentially asked her to put a ring on it.

"Why don't you get married soon?" he had shouted at fellow lawmaker Ayaka Shiomura as she made a speech about the need for more public support for pregnant Japanese women. Mr Suzuki's sexist remark was remarkably ill-timed, for the country's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been championing "Womenomics" as a key part of the "Abenomics" growth strategy. Japan's population problem is well-documented; with its birth rate at dismal levels, its working-age population is expected to shrink 40 per cent by 2050.

Now, Mr Abe wants to get women out of the kitchen and into the office. He is determined to drag the rate of female workforce participation up from 68 per cent (as at 2013) to 73 per cent by 2020.